Ice cube dispensing refrigerator



April 8; 1947 J. E. BRENNAN ICE CUBE DISPENSING REFRIGERATOR Filed Sept. 17, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet l 44 ifa Y LZ f INVENTOR ATTORNEYS.

April 3 1947. J. E. BRENNAN 2,418,572

ICE CUBE DISPENSING REFRIGERATOR Patentedl Apr. 8, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT oEElcE Application September 17, 1943, SerialNo. 502,787

9 Claims.

l 1 f This invention relates to mechanical refrigerators, for either household or commercial use, and it has to do more particularly with the top- ,opening cabinet type of refrigerator that may be used as a unit in kitchen cabinet assemblies, or in recreation rooms, cocktail lounges, and other such places.

One phase of the invention is concerned with that portion of the mechanical refrigerator wherein the so-called ice cubes" or ice blocks are formed, and among the objects of the invention are to provide an ice-forming receptacle that is permanently built into the refrigerator and renders unnecessary the use of removable ice trays; to provide means by which the ice blocks may be quickly loosened from the walls of the wells in which they are frozen, and to provide further means by which said blocks may be readily removed or lifted from the wells.

More specifically, an object of the invention is toA incorporate electrical heating means ln the walls of the ice-forming receptacle or wells, by which, when energized, the ice blocks are superflcially melted and thus released; and another object is to provide ice block extractors having prongs or parts depending into the wellsin close f proximity to the walls thereof so that when the electrical heating means is energized, it will melt the film of ice between each such part or prong and the wall while leaving intact the bond between said part or prong and the ice block. Thus, by the use of extractors, the ice blocks may be conveniently lifted from the ice forming receptacle or wells and then disengaged from the extractors.

Another object of my invention is to associate with each of severaLgroups of ice forming wells. an individual electrical heater and to provide a circuit forl such heater controlled by an individual switch, desirably self-opening and in the i form of a push button. For convenience, each group of wells and the corresponding switch are marked with the same indicia. By reason of this arrangement, any group or groups of wells, less than the whole, may be selected and the ice blocks therein released by the closing of the correspondingly marked switch or switches and the blocks extracted, after which the empty wells may be supplied with water.

Thus, barring excessive 2 y; Another'object of the invention is to intimately associate or unite the ice-forming receptacle and vthe evaporator unit or coil of the refrigerating system so as to obtain maximum freezing speed.

A further object is to associate with the icetorming receptacle a water supply conduit that is led through and in heat exchanging relation to a cold region of the refrigerator, thereby to chill the water, and ywhich incorporates 'a movable outlet extension, desirably in the form of a swiveled faucet, so that the spout thereof is capable of practically universal movement and may be swung over the receptacle when it is desired to supply the receptacle with water, the faucet also furnishing water for the preparation of drinks and other purposes. In this connection, it is a further object to provide a. receptacle that is divided by partitions into wells for the forming of ice blocks and which partitions are notched or otherwise formed to cause overflow from one to another of the wells so that the wells beyond the orbit of movement of the faucet may receive their supply from adjacent wells into which the faucet or an intervening well discharges.

Witha view of further expediting the freezing process, ythe invention contemplates locating in intimate heat exchanging relation to the ice forming receptacle, equipped with the electrical heating means aforesaid, the bulb of the usual thermostatic control device for the rei'rigerating machine4 or apparatus so that the thermosensitive fluid contents of said bulb is aiectedby the temperature of said heating means as wellas that of the evaporator unit or coil. As a resulto! this arrangementl the temperature of said bulb is raised when electric current is supplied to the heating means to release the'ice blocks thereby to cause the refrigerating machine or apparatus to start a cycle of operation; and even after the current is turned oi and the heat of the resistor element is dissipated, the temperature of the bulb remains somewhat elevated under the inuence of the water that has been placed. in the receptacle until such water freezes.

It is a. further object of my inventionfto provide a top opening refrigerator cabinet'equipped with inner and outer doors, the kopening of the outer door affording access to the ice-forming receptacle, Lwhile the inner door, remaining closed, serves to prevent appreciable infiltration of warm air to the cold space or compartment vbelow the inner door and beneath the ice receptacle. I at present prefer to make the inner door or closure in the form of a removable panel, properly designed, so that the same may be lifted out of the refrigerator cabinet and used as a serving tray. When in place, it provides a convenient support for glasses while mixing and icing drinks or while transferring ice blocks to the glasses from the ice-forming receptacle.

Another object comprehended by my invention is to increase the capacity of an ice-forming receptacle by making it much deeper than usual, relative to its width and length, and dividing it into wells whose cross sectional size and shape correspond substantially to that of shallow ice cube wells. Within each well is an extractor consisting of a strip of suitable material, such as metal, preferably flexible or resilient, that extends from the region of the top of the well down along a side wall thereof to a point adjacent the bottom, and one or more separators that extend laterally from said strip and serve to divide the well into spaces whose vertical dimension is substantially equal to that of the standard ice cube. With the receptacle equipped with heating means, such as that above referred to, the relatively deep ice block may be released from the walls of the well and, by means of the extractor, lifted from the well, after which it may be readily separated into individual cakes or cubes by bending the aforesaid strip thereby to spread the separators.

Other objects and advantages will appear as I proceed to describe the invention by reference to the accompanying drawings wherein Fig 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a refrigerator of the open top cabinet variety with the outer door of the cold compartment in which the ice freezing receptacle is located open; Fig. 2 is a 'vertical section through the top portion of the refrigerator, substantially on the line 2-2 of F1g.1; Fig. 3 is a sectional detail of the iceforming receptacle on a scale considerably enlarged over that of the preceding views; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of the ice block extractors; Fig. 5 is a bottom plan view of the ice-forming receptacle showing the evaporator unit or coil and the bulb of a thermostatic control device applied to the bottom of the receptacle; Fig. 6 is a partial plan view of the refrigerl ator in the region of the ice-forming receptacle and indicating by means of dotted lines the path of movement of the water faucet spout above the receptacle; Fig. 7 is a fragmentary perspective view ofthe refrigerator as though looking rearwardly and downwardly into the compartment in which. adjacent the rear and top thereof, the ice-forming receptacle is located, the view showing, partly withdrawn from beneath the receptacle, a tray that is slidably supported below show it so incorporated in the accompanying drawings. The cabinet, designated generally by the reference numeral I, encloses a cold space or compartment 2 that may be used for general refrigeration purposes. The front and rear walls oi' said compartment are designated l and 4, respectively; the end walls I and I, and the bottom wall I (mg. 7). As appears from Fig. 1I

the present cabinet is long enough to enclose a second compartment alongside the one Just de. scribed. All walls are, of course, of the usual insulated construction. A depressed ledge or seat I0 surrounds the top opening of the cabinet, andthe same is fitted with a gasket Il wherewith the underside of the peripheral llange I2 of a door I3 engages when said door is closed. The door is shown in Fig` l as hinged along the top of the wall 5, the hinge being of the piano type and designated I 4.

Rigidly and permanently 4built into the cabinet is an ice-forming receptacle 20, shown more particularly in Fig. 3 as made up of an outer panlike metal shell 2|, and an inner metal shell 22 that is formed to provide wells 25 in which the ice blocks are formed. Between the shells 2| and 22 is a filler 26 of electrical insulating material desirably of high heat conductivity. Embedded in the flller 28, and surrounding the vertical walls of the wells 25 and between the bottom walls thereof and the corresponding wall of the outer shell are electrical heating means in the form of electrical resistor elements designated 21.

Intimately associated with, and preferably united, as by welding, to the outer shell of the receptacle 20 is the evaporator unit or coil Il of the usual refrigerating machine or apparatus (not shown). Between adjacent branches of the evaporator coil is disposed the bulb 33 of a thermostatic device that controls the operation of the refrigerating machine or apparatus. such a control being common in mechanical refrigerators. The bulb 33 is shown as connected by clips I4 to the bottom of the receptacle 2l (Figs. 3 and 5). i

The ice-forming receptacle is located to one side of the open top of the compartment 2, preferably adjacent the rear wall I thereof, and is of a length to completely bridge the space between walls l and l. Thus the receptacle forms a permanent closure for a part of the top of said compartment, and extending over the remaining area of said top is a closure 40. This closure is hingedly, and in the present construction removably, supported at the rear by separable hinge connections 4I, and at the front by a cleat 42. The closure is shown as having a handle 42 that is located near its forward end by means of which it may be swung on the hinge connections 4I, and as provided near its lateral edges with handles 44 by which it may be lifted from the cabinet and used as a serving tray. The closure when in place serves as a convenient support for glasses when icing or mixing drinks, although it serves the more es.

slid to and from a position beneath the evaporator unit or coil 2l, is a tray 41 in which frozen desserts or other foods may be placed. The tray. especially the ends thereof, are constructed of resilient metal, and said ends are extended up and are shown as flanged outwardly. thence up l frigerator, the tray 41 catches the water that drips from the parts above.

Mounted on the back wall 4 about midway of l the length of the receptable 20 is a swiveled faucet 50 of standard type incorporating a valve, the operating handle of which is shown at 5I. The faucet forms the terminal of a water supply conduit 52 that includes a coil 53 shown as situated on the inner side of the rear wall 4 within the cold compartment 2. The spout 55 of the faucet may be swung up and down on a horizontal axis where it joins the body of the faucet and said body is capable of rotation on a vertical axis, wherefore the spout has practically universal movement within the range indicated by the dotted lines in Figs. 6 and 7.

The wells 25 of the ice forming receptacle 20 are set off by partitions 51 that are parallel with the ends of said receptacle, and by partitions 58 that are parallel with the front and rear sides thereof. The partitions 58 are shown a's having notches 59 through which the adjacent wells 25 of each .fore-and-aft row may overflow from one to the other. It will be observed especially from Fig. 6 that the discharge end of the spout of the faucet 50 is capable of swinging through an arc that extends above all fore-andaft rows of the wells 25. As a consequence of this all wells of each of said rows may be filled from the faucet because of their ability to overflow from one to another through the notches 59.

`Extractors 6U, by means of which the ice blocks are removed from the wells 25, have button-like heads 6I for convenient handling, and each includes four prongs 62 that depend from the body portion of -the extractor and have their lower ends turned outwardly, as best shown in Fig. 4. The prongs are so disposed that the extractors may be placed astride the partitions 51 and 58 at their intersections where they separate adjacent wells of the rows running fore-and-aft and laterally of the receptacle. A prong 62 isthus disposed within each of the four wells served by a single extractor, and each prong extends down into the well in contact with or in close proximity to the wall ofthe well and its laterally extended lower end bears the same relation to the bottom of the well. Consequently, when the resistor elements 21 of the electrical heating means are energized to heat the walls of the well and thus destroy the bond between such wallsand the enclosed ice blocks, any lm of ice between the prongs of the extractors and said walls will simultaneously be melted. Now, by

means of the extractor, the blocks of ice may be i lifted from the four wells into which the prongs ofthe extractor depend, after which they may be broken loose from the prongs. In the releasing process, the heat is on for such a little while that it fails to penetrate the ice blocks and prongs sufficiently to disrupt the bond between them. Y

In the present embodiment, a single electrical heating means is associated with each of four groups of eight wells, each group embracing two adjacent fore-and-aft rows. These groups are numbered 1, 2," 3 and "4, and as shown in Figs, 1, 6 and 7 the numerals are applied to the top of the receptacle 20 adjacent the front edge thereof.v Each of the electrical heating means is adapted to be supplied with current through an individual circuit, such as that illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 2. The circuit v `comprises a conductor 65 that leads from a source conductor 65 that leads from said coil or element to one side of a switch 61, and a conductor B8 that leads from said switch back to the source. The` switch is biased toward open position and is adapted to be manually closed by a push button 69. While the switches or push v buttons for the various electrical heating means may be installed at any desired location, they are shown herein as disposed adjacent the top of the front wall 3, the push buttons occupying a depression 'l0 in said wall so as not to interfere with the flange i2 of the door I3. The push buttons bear numerals corresponding to those on the receptacle 20 that mark the groups of wells equipped with the electrical heating means controlled by the respective push button switches.

In the use of the refrigerator, when ice cubes or blocks are needed, the door I3 is swung open, as shown in Fig. 1, and one (or more if desired) of the push buttons 69 is depressed-for instance, push button No. l-and the electrical heating means associated with group 1 of the ice wells will be energized to melt the blocks in said wells enough to loosen them from the walls and partitions of the receptacle. Then, 'by grasping the head 8| of one of the extractors 80 o f the selected group of wells,r it may -lbc lifted to remove four blocks of ice from the receptacle. remaining ice blocks of the selected group or groups may be removed, after which the extractors are returned to their positions in the receptacle. The number of wells'emptied may then be replenished with water by swinging the spout of the faucet 50 over the fore-and-aft rows containing the empty wells and turning on the Water iby manipulation of the operating handle 5|, it being remembered that all wells of each foreand-aft row communicate through the overflow notches 59. When the emptied wells are refilled, the freezing process will immediately set in. The

heating period, if at all sustained, will affect the i thermostatic control including the bulb 33 and start the refrigerating machine or apparatus on a cycle of operation, so that the freezing temperature of the ice-forming receptacle will be retained or promptly restored. Thus the maximum freezing speed is reali-Zed, and this ls enhanced by the supply of chilled water resulting from the location of the coil 53 within the cold compartment 5.

In Figs. 8 and 9 is illustrated an ice-forming receptacle having wells much deeper than those of standard ice trays, or those of the herein previousiy described receptacle, while yin other respects the two receptacles of my invention may be the same. The receptacle 20a at present under consideration includes electrical heating means or resistor elements 21, and ice block forming wells 25H. Within each well 25n is an extractor consisting of a strip 15 of flexible material, desirably resilient metal, and at its upper end it is suitably formed to provide a handle 16, and at its lower end is turned laterally to provide a foot 11 that bears on the bottom wall of the well adjacent the side wall along which the strip depends. A plurality of separators are carried by and extend laterally from the strip 15. Water, upon being introduced into the well 25, flows about the separators and fills the well, and when frozen produces a block of ice corresponding in cubic contents substantially to that of the well. When the electrical heating means is energized, the block of ice and extractor will 'be loosened from the walls of the well so that, by means oi' the extractor, the block may be lifted from the well. Upon being Likewise the 7 removed, the strip 15 may be bent, as indicated in Fig. 9, thereby to separate the block of ice into cakes or cubes which may then be disengaged from the extractor.

Having .thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In. a. mechanical refrigerator, an open top cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, a door for the open top of the cabinet, an ice-forming receptacle permanently incorporated in the cabinet and located immediately below said door, said receptacle extending over a. part of the area of said compartment, and a closure swingably and removably supported in a horizontal position in substantially the plane of said receptacle across the remainder of the area of said compartment.

2. In a mechanical refrigerator, a cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, 'said cabinet being open at the top, a door for closing the open top of the cabinet, an ice block forming receptacle permanently incorporated in the cabinet immediately below said door, and a water supply conduit incorporated in the cabinet and having a movable terminalpart above the cabinet by which water may be supplied to the aforesaid receptacle.

3. In a mechanical refrigerator, an open top cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, a door for closing the open top of the cabinet, an ice blocll. forming receptacle permanently incorporated in the cabinet immediately below said door and occupying a part of the area of the open top oi' said compartment, an evaporator unit beneath and in close association with the ice forming receptacle, and a water supply conduit incor-v porated in the cabinet and having a part in heat exchanging relation to the evaporator unit and including amovable terminal part above the cabinet by which water may be supplied to the aforesaid receptacle.

4. In a mechanical refrigerator, an open top cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, a door for closing the open top of the cabinet, an ice block forming receptacle permanently incorporated in the cabinet immediately below said door and occupying a part of the area of the open top of said compartment, an evaporator unit beneath and in close association with the ice forming receptacle, electrical heating means for heating the walls of the receptacle, a circuit tor supplying current thereto, and a switch in said circuit.

5. In a mechanical refrigerator, an open top cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, a door for closing the open top of the cabinet, an ice block i'orming receptacle permanently incorporated in the cabinet immediately below said door and occupying a part of the area oi the open top'oi' said compartment, an evaporator unit beneath and in close association with the ice forming receptacle, a thermosensitive element of a thermostatic control deyice in iuxtaposition to said receptacle and to the evaporator unit, electrical heating means for heating the walls oi the receptacle, a circuit for supplying currentthereto. and a switch in said circuit.

6. In a mechanical refrigerator, an open top cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, a door for closing the open top of the cabinet, an ice block forming receptacle permanently incorporated in the cabinet immediately below said door and occupying a part of the area oi' the open top o( said compartment, ice block extractors having parts depending into the receptacle in close proximity to the walls thereof, electrical heating means for warming the walls o! said receptacle, a circuit for supplying current to said heating means, and a switch in said circuit.

7. In a mechanical refrigerator, an open top cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, an ice block forming receptacle permanently incorporated in the cabinet adjacent one side and near the top of said compartment, ice block extractora having parts depending into the receptacle adjacent the walls thereof, electrical heating means in the walls of said receptacle, a circuit for sup- Plying electric current t0 said heating means, a switch included in the circuit and located sd- Jacent a side oi the compartment remote from lsaid receptacle, and a door for closing the open top of the cabinet.

8. In a mechanical refrigerator, an open top cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, an ice block forming receptacle permanently incorporated in the cabinet and located adjacent one side oi' said compartment near the top thereof.

said receptacle being characterized by a plurality oi groups of open top wells, an electrical heater for heating the walls of the wells o! each wup, an individual circuit for supplying electric current to each heater, a switch in each circuit, the switches and the corresponding groups of wells whose heating circuits are controlled by said switches being marked with the same indicia, and a door for closing the open top oi' the cabinet.

9. In a mechanical refrigerator, an open top cabinet enclosing a cold compartment, an ice forming receptacle characterized by a Pl'ty of open top wells supported within and adjacent the top of the compartment, a swivel faucet supported by the cabinet in such position that the discharge end of its spout may swing through a path above certain of said wells, the partitions separating said wells from others of the wells being formed to provide overiiow means through which the latter wells may receive water from the irst mentioned wells, and a door for closing the open top of the cabinet.

` JAMES E. BRENNAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the ille of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

